Portland State University’s Department of Architecture recently announced that architect and professor Gilles Saucier will deliver the third presentation in their inaugural lecture series, titled “Firsts,” given by the department. Saucier is currently a design partner of Saucier + Perrotte Architects in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and an invited professor and critic at a number of Canadian and American universities, most recently at MIT in 2011.Saucier will speak on Thursday, February 23, at 7pm, at Shattuck Hall Annex on the Portland State University campus. These lecture series, which are free to the public, explore the concepts of origins and beginnings, long a subject of interest among architects. More information on the event after the break.

Saucier + Perrotte Architects, founded in 1988, is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary design practice that has been honored with numerous awards and published worldwide. From the beginning, the practice has integrally linked its architecture to geology and the landscape, stressing the physical and symbolic importance of site. The firm represented Canada at the Architecture Biennale of Venice in 2004, and in 2009 it received the RAIC Award of Excellence for Best Architectural Firm in Canada.

The “Firsts” series spans the 2011-2012 academic year, with presentations by six notable academics, artists and professionals in architectural practice worldwide: Gilles Saucier, Jeremy Till, Sarah Wigglesworth and Paul Pfeiffer will speak in February, April and May 2012, preceded by Petra Kempf and John Ochsendorf in October 2011. The concepts of origins and beginnings, long a subject of interest among architects, will be explored throughout the series of lectures. As the Greek word Arche (meaning “first cause”) is at the root of the word architecture, the guest lecturers will discuss their own “first causes”—the spark that led them to follow their career path—as part of their presentations.